Recent Sermons
Our Responsibility – Ministry
September 7, 2008
Matthew 28:16 – 20
Acts 14:8 – 18
When last we met on 8.24.08, I began a sermon series entitled PRIDE in the Gospel; and started with our purpose as individuals and as a church. Our purpose is mission and our responsibility is ministry.
Our purpose, people of Imago Dei, is to communicate the gospel. The gospel, as we understand it and live it, may be summed up simply as God so loved the world that God sent Jesus to show the way of love so that the world might be saved. (John 3:16)
“When Saul had returned to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.” (Acts 9:26) Could they trust he changed?
If our purpose is mission and our responsibility is ministry, then the proof of Saul’s transformation would be in the pudding of his ministry. The disciples needed to see a change that they could believe in.
To experience the Gospel in one’s heart is to undergo a transformation in that one begins to live their life in a new direction with love as the focal point (an unselfish, serving love as taught and lived by Jesus).
That new direction may be as drastic as a 180 turn or simply shifting no more than 5 degrees—no matter how major or minor the change, if one truly has transformed, there is a change. For one to call themselves a Christian…for us to call ourselves Christian folks need to see it in our lives…for it to be an authentic claim.
Question for you: how are you living a changed life because of Jesus in your life? Are you daily changing the way you live—make decisions on how to spend your money and how to care for your neighbors and the way you give your time to the mission and ministry of Jesus—the way you talk with others about who is the source of your life, Jesus?
Does Jesus come up in your conversations?
There are many who may profess and confess to Jesus as their way on Sunday, but show no change in their life Monday through Saturday. Jesus is a personal savior on their terms; and yet to truly follow Jesus is to live under his story according to his terms every day.
What are his terms? You heard them read today from what we call the Great Commission found in Matthew 28. We are to share the good news of God’s love with others.
We know of them as corporal acts of mercy outlined in Matthew 25: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned, clothe the naked, and welcome the stranger.
Finally, Matthew 5 that focuses upon the Beautiful Attitudes of Jesus that we talked about during our previous sermon series from July to August (and if you missed them, the sermons are on our web site).
How have you incorporated the teachings of Jesus found in Matthew chapters 5, 25, or 28 into your life? Is it a change that others can see and therefore believe in God?
The apostles and disciples in Jerusalem were unsure, at first, of him, but Saul showed them, too. Our deeds do have to match our words for us to have integrity. It is inauthentic to call oneself a Christian and not live out the teachings of Jesus.
Our purpose is mission and our responsibility is ministry…we are responsible to live the mission of love even and especially when there is sacrifice.
Saul sacrificed comfort by going before those who had once hired him to pursue and bring to jail those who followed Jesus, but this time he went to testify about Jesus as Lord.
In essence, Saul came out as a follower of Jesus. He violated “don’t ask, don’t tell.” At a time and a place when it was not necessarily safe to be out for Jesus, Saul chose to speak up about the good news found through Jesus Christ.
One might say that it is not necessarily easy and comfortable for Queer Christians to be out for Jesus amongst some homos, nor be out as gay or gay-affirming with some Christians.
Rodney Stark, in the book The Rise of Christianity writes: “People are marginalized when their membership in two groups poses a contradiction or cross pressure such that their status in each group is lowered by their membership in the other.” Sounds like queer Christians—those gay & gay-affirming queer Christians—does it not.
Saul came out for Jesus and was no longer welcomed in his home town; and so what did he do once the death threats from former colleagues began to role in?
What does one do when one is not necessarily welcomed in their hometown? One may decide to do what Jesus did, one leaves town. Saul, along with his mentor, Barnabas hit the road.
The two eventually made there way to territory known as Galatia. This was a new land and a new people in which to share the gospel – Saul became inclusive in his sharing the gospel no longer going after the niche community of Jews, but expanding his outreach to non-Jews.
One might say we become like Saul when we go to festivals in Media to expand our outreach to Non-Homos looking for the disenfranchised and disillusioned who are convinced they have no access to a faith community that welcomes their understanding of how Jesus is calling them to live the gospel responsibly through ministry. Early church historian, Wayne Meeks, wrote:
“Within a decade of the crucifixion of Jesus, the village culture of Palestine had been left far behind, and the Greco-Roman city [like Tarsus] became the dominant environment of the Christian movement.” Saul, who would become known in time as Paul, had a huge hand in the spreading of the gospel.
We are to become like Saul, transformed by Jesus, set out to share the good news of Jesus and in the process aid in the continual transformation of the world! This is what happens when we live our lives under the story of Jesus rather than under someone else’s story.
All I have spoken is background for today’s reading from Acts 14.
Paul is in Lystra an ancient town in the land of Galatia—totally Greco-Roman and unlike the other towns he visited in his travels this one apparently had no synagogue so no Jews for him to share the gospel—but that didn’t stop him from proclaiming the good news.
It’s like just because Super Sunday on 8.24.08 wasn’t a gay festival didn’t mean that Imago Dei MCC shouldn’t have bothered in being out. I tell you, I am so proud and grateful of this community that decided to be out for Jesus like Paul in Lystra.
Here Paul healed a man lame from birth. He had been sitting there, crippled since birth, listening to Paul proclaim good news; and Paul looked at the man and could see that he was being drawn to the word of hope found through Jesus. So Paul shouted – “up on your feet!”
The man leaped up and began to walk and thus so impressed the crowd that they took Paul for Hermes, because he was the "chief speaker," and his companion Barnabas for Zeus. The crowd spoke in the local dialect and wanted to offer sacrifices to them when Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes and shouted that they were merely men.
From scripture I quote: “the priest of the local Zeus shrine” got the people “ready for the ritual of sacrifice.” The very thought of their pagan gods healing was most unusual.
The god known as Zeus was not a nice pagan god – stories about him tell of his raping and pillaging and messing with humanity in ways that were anything but loving. Paul and Barnabas weren’t Hermes & Zeus. They were followers of Jesus living the purpose of mission through responsible ministry.
“The Christian teaching that God loves those who love God was alien to pagan beliefs. Equally alien to paganism was the notion that because God loves humanity, Christians cannot please God unless they love one another. Indeed, as God demonstrates God’s love through sacrifice, humans must demonstrate there love through sacrifice on behalf of one another.”
The teaching Paul brought was a new teaching—a new religious movement, which would be the foundational biblical narrative to churches planted beyond Jerusalem lead to the rise of Christianity brought with it revitalization in Greco-Roman cities.
Again, Rodney Starks, “New religious movements mainly draw their converts from the ranks of the religiously inactive and discontented, and those affiliated with the most accommodated (worldly) religious communities.”
The Christian communities Paul helped establish and influence—beginning in Lystra, offered charity and hope—corporal acts of mercy and the message of the gospel of love.
They offered a sense of community to the disenfranchised and disillusioned becoming like family in creating solidarity around a common purpose: the mission of Christ because they were responsible to the ministry outlined by Jesus.
John Caputo, author of What Would Jesus DE-Construct? Wrote:
Real journeys are full of unexpected turns and twists, requiring a faith that can move mountains and a hope against hope, where one does not see what one was trying to do until the journey is completed, which postmodernists call the “absolute faith.”
Paul showed an absolute faith upon a road where he would be transformed, forced to leave his homeland, compelled to share the love of God even with strangers who offered mixed responses.
This is what it means to be responsible with the mission given to us by Jesus through living the mission of God’s love out and proud in our ministries.
It is not enough to simply show up on Sunday and participate in worship. Our purpose, as individuals and community is to live the mission and we do that through how responsible we are with our ministry.
Too often the human ego will take credit for the work of God made possible through the people of God, but here is the experience of Paul who said to those who wished to worship him and Barnabas:
“We’re not gods! We are men just like you, and we’re here to bring you the Message, to persuade you to abandon” that which is silly. “We don’t make God; God makes us.”
None of us are god; however Christ is incarnate with us seeking to lead us toward responsible ministry that embodies the mission spreading God’s love.
In the book Pagan Christianity that we shall begin discussing during Sunday Devotions next Sunday beginning at 9:45 AM the authors write:
The Pastor. He is the fundamental figure of the Protestant faith. So prevailing is the pastor in the minds of most Christians that he is often better known, more highly praised, and more heavily relied upon that Jesus Christ Himself!
But here is the profound irony. There is not a single verse in the entire New Testament that supports the existence of the modern-day pastor. He simply did not exist in the early church.
Paul would not be treated as a god and we would do well today if we stopped putting clergy on pedestals as both a means to worship a golden calf and as an excuse to pass off ministry to the “professionals.”
The purpose of all followers of Jesus is to live the GREAT mission and those followers live it most responsibly through loving ministries that follow the terms of Jesus.
The Jesus terms are found in Matthew 5, 25, & 28. How have you incorporated those instructions into your life? Is it a change that others can see and therefore believe in God through your words and deeds?
May each of us authentically be able to answer yes and in doing so have a PRIDE in the Gospel; and if any of us in unsure, may him/her go to God in prayer seeking guidance on how to live responsibly the ministry of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Money & Sex: Blessed to be a Blessing
October 12, 2008
Ephesians 1:3-6
Matthew 22:15-33
This is our season of stewardship to which we intentionally pray and plan out how we, as individuals and families, will support the mission and ministry of God made possible through Imago Dei MCC because without the support of the people, that which we call church becomes impotent.
Our focus this October is upon how we are blessed to be a blessing.
If we are honest—so often stewardship isn’t understood as making our love offering to God—but rather whether we like our church or not; and if so, for how much?
Ours is a consumer culture that bases decisions on preference while promoting the value of money and sex—but, it is kind of hard to worship either of those products these days for their value is shrinking—pun intended.
Christ calls us to love God over culture, but to also be in the culture testifying to the love of God toward all creation because what we grasp to is fleeting while God’s love endures!
So - do you love God - this church, which is the people; and not a building? If so, how will each of us support God and the people we love? We have the power to be a blessing to others because we have been blessed by God. How do you and will you show passionate love toward God, self, and community?
We have grown smaller this year, deepening of faith with less folks because some are drifting and moving away and some becoming very busy with matters other than church, and maybe even complacency, too; and yes others unwilling/unable to engage in healthy relating with one another - all leave Christ’s community or linger on the fringes.
This reminds me of the words of Jesus found in Matthew 22:1-6.
Many followers of Jesus drifted away when they thought he died, and then again when they saw him ascend; but the faithful stayed and prayed and planned their future together as a people of hope. If you read the end of Luke and opening of Acts, it was a confusing time; and then the Holy Spirit came upon them.
This, too, is such a time to pray for a new infusion of Holy Spirit & us to believe once more that we know that that God is with us. It is time to stop waiting for others to act by becoming a player with God in this game of life…it is time to not only accept that you’re blessed, but pick up the mantle—the call of Christ—to be a blessing to others.
May it be so - we shall see - shall we pray?
Holy God, our church needs a new infusion of Holy Spirit; and our people need a revitalized refocusing upon you in their lives. If this church is to live your vision in 2009 may it begin anew this day with how each of us intentionally discerns your call upon us to give and willingness to receive so that we may receive the blessings you have for us to give to others in the name of Christ, we pray; and may the words of my mouth and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you through Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh writes, in his book The Art of Power with regard to getting what we really want:
When we are clear about our motivations, our actions are much more powerful because we can do them with one hundred percent of our intention (p.65) So all of us must look deeply into our desire. What’s our true motivation? (p.68)
What’s appealing to you? You’re tempted, you want it, so you bite it, even though you know that it will get you. Fame, sex, power, and wealth are the four kinds of bait that have a hook. If you’re motivated by any of these desires, your destiny is suffering. (p.69)
Jesus was so aware of this truth which we hear today spoken by a monk who follows the teachings of Buddha, who l believe, preaches and practices what I call Christ Consciousness.
Money and Sex—these are two focal points of reflection for us today because Jesus had to focus upon them in his day—fame and sex and power and wealth can simply be summed up as any unhealthy pursuit for money and sex.
In Jesus day, the attitudes of the leadership and interpretation of the laws toward the use of money and sex was intended to keep women & children as property, to support slave trade, oppression of foreigners, domination and exploitation by religious leaders over the followers, political tyrannical rule so that those in charge stayed in charge.
Jesus brought a change—he brought the kind of change that the people needed—and I wish he was running for president today!
We learn today that two religious parties in power wanted to trap and trick Jesus because he wanted to give an alternative option to the system of repression put forward by the Pharisees and Sadducees.
First, the Pharisees & Money: the Pharisees were one of the three main Jewish political and religious movements in the years between c.150 BCE and 70 CE.
Their main distinguishing characteristic was a belief in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah. The Torah or Written Law was akin to the U.S. Constitution in the sense that it set down a series of laws that were open to interpretation, which the Pharisees alone believed they were worthy to provide.
Know anyone like that? Only they know the truth!
Our reading indicates the Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus on the money question because he was providing alternative ways to understand and embrace God’s blessing to be a blessing—Jesus was undermining the power of the Pharisees.
The occupying force, Rome, had their rules about taxes and Caesar; and the Pharisees maneuvered to publically ask Jesus a question that would get him in trouble with the regime.
Oh my, have you ever wished you had the wisdom of Jesus?
There have been a few times in my life that folks with a hidden agenda asked a question in such a way that my answer to their question got me in trouble when they disclosed their full agenda.
The lesson – be quick to listen and slow to answer!
Scripture says, “Jesus knew they were up to no good;” and he responded with an answer that, to this day, requires all people to make a faith statement with how they live their life rather merely reciting sacred text.
Faith without works is dead! We are blessed to be a blessing. [Read James 2:14-17]
Render unto the Capital what the current tax code requires; and to God, be blessed so that you may be a blessing to others.
Second, the Sadducees & Sex: the Sadducees were elitists who wanted to maintain the priestly caste, but they were also liberal in their willingness to incorporate Hellenism into their lives, something the Pharisees opposed.
The Sadducees rejected the idea of the Oral Law and insisted on a literal interpretation of the Written Law; consequently, they did not believe in an afterlife, since it is not mentioned in the Torah.
So after the Pharisees left annoyed and speechless by Jesus’ response to money, the Sadducees arrived on the scene with their trick question about sex.
This is the group that took the written law literally and here is Jesus opening words to their ridiculous hypothetical situation: “you don’t know you’re Bibles and you don’t know how God works!”
Oh, if only each of us were so boldly able to speak about the living Word of God when confronted by those who have an unsavory agenda, especially with regard to sexual orientation/gender identity!
These Sadducees were concerned with one thing—tricking Jesus by attempting to manipulate the law—they didn’t care whose wife that poor woman was assigned to in heaven after having been passed around like property to seven impotent brothers!
Truthfully, they only cared about a male heir to keep the property in the hands of the family! They didn’t even believe in resurrection let alone gender equity like Jesus; and so their question is a clear mockery—where the Pharisees had a hidden agenda—the Sadducees were open in their taunting disrespect!
Again, I share the words of Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh:
When we are clear about our motivations, our actions are much more powerful because we can do them with one hundred percent of our intention (p.65) so all of us must look deeply into our desire. What’s our true motivation? (p.68)
Jesus’ verbal exchange with these two groups is a clear hands down victory; but it wasn’t over for round three was about to begin as both groups joined forces to go after Jesus once more!
[Read Matthew 22:34-40]
They just kept pounding Jesus peppering him with obtuse questions and challenges - here Jesus was passionate about people…he cared about their knowing that God blessed them to live blessing toward others.
Jesus loved; and Jesus proclaimed love.
It is what Imago Dei MCC has tried to be about all these years - love.
Ten years ago, I began preparing to do the work God was calling me to—to plant a church—my inspiration and guidance came from years of seeing queer folk believe God didn’t love them; and watching some of them die from complications to AIDS, or drug overdoses, or murdered because others thought God didn’t love them.
Much has happened in these ten years; and Jesus is still calling us to proclaim love for such a time as this!
So do you love? Do you love God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence? Do you love this church? If so, then support it.
Shelly shared with the board of directors about she and Diane’s experience at another MCC in which during hospitality (post-worship), plates are not provided! Where does one place all their food?
A few moments passed and Colleen blurted out, “Good! No plates! Too many folks have too much on their plate to begin with!”
In this busy, busy, busy world, I have been watching people push God off their plate. For many, many reasons I have watched God and church be knocked off the plate.
I share this without judgment, but with some concern as I see God being pushed out of their lives I also see them become contorted and frustrated looking at others to blame for the pain and disappointment.
The church is only as strong as to what the people put into the church; and if the church feels like it is lacking passion and prayer and intelligence, it could be because God isn’t on the plate of the people.
How does this happen?
When the people of a church push God off the plate with being too busy for worship or prayer; and too busy to be a part of small group studies and discussions; and too, people push God off the plate when their personal motives are centered upon those actions, which according to the Holy Spirit, are unhealthy, unforgiving, unloving and unjust.
If you’re motivated by any of these desires, your destiny is suffering. Said our Buddhist Monk (p.69)
The irony is that we do not have to suffer—Jesus already paid that price—unlike the unbelieving Sadducees, resurrection was coming. The Apostle Paul once said:
“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God - Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
(1 Corinthians 1:18, 24b)
God is faithful. We are not. God loves us anyway; and sent a child, not to some banquet, but to us to show us the way. He ended up on a cross before the tomb, but death lost its sting.
Resurrection Love given for all blessed by Christ Jesus once and for all, but people suffer needlessly still; and so God gives us the Spirit to be a blessing to them.
Will you accept your blessing to be a blessing? Will you show your love to God, self, and your neighbor—your church, today?
May you truly accept the motivation of Christ to lead your attitude and actions toward stewardship to that which tears down walls and builds up hope because you have been blessed to be a blessing beginning today! Amen.
Growing with Christ
November 9, 2008
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-26
Psalm 78:1-8
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was called Moses of the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s. Some have called President-elect Barak Obama a member of the Joshua generation.
King had a dream, like Moses, to get the people to the Promised Land. They both got to the mountain top, but is all.
The leadership of a once enslaved people learning how to live as a faith community passed from Moses to Joshua; and some are saying that there haven’t been leaders like Rev. Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy until recently with President-Elect Obama.
What do the three men have in common – King, Kennedy, & Obama? With an oversimplified answer, they had the dream of freedom for all people & spoke of the dream is such a way as to bring diverse people together who share vision and work together to see it come true!
It is with mixed emotions that I celebrate our nation’s historic moment.
In the year I was born, 1968, King and Kennedy were assassinated and MCC began; and now forty years later, our nation elects an African-American to our highest office and four states pass laws to deny equal rights to GLBT families.
Growing with Christ ~ as a nation, a church, and as a person may at times feel like a dance two steps forward and one step back.
Shall we pray?
Gracious and loving God, ee are witnesses to a long journey, to suffering and to faithlessness. It is so hard to wait for changes in our lives and in the world. It's difficult to wait for open doors, for equality, for peace.
During our time of waiting, help us to be watchful and faithful. And when we grow weary, quiet our minds and hearts. Assure us of your constant presence, O God, and cloak us in your boundless love. Grant us peace and courage to meet the challenges of this day; and inspire us by your Spirit to follow you. Amen.
Joshua 24 is a scary text!
The passage encourages us to wonder: Why don’t we remember the faithfulness of God? (After all, God is always present.)
God was with the former slaves crossing the River Jordan, giving manna in the wilderness, and teaching them how to become community as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day.
God is with us when we rise in the morning, attend work or school, and with when we pray and worship and minister to one another.
How come we forget the faithfulness of God tempted instead to take action into our own hands by any means necessary failing to trust God to lead us to our Promised Land?
How come, from places of fear, we deny others equality whether Black or Gay, Muslim or Hispanic, each of us has no doubt denied someone something because of a fear we allow to possess us.
Joshua, in today’s reading, was an old man. No doubt he had spent some time reflecting upon his past and how he had led the people of Israel into the Promised Land. His methods involved conquering all the native tribes, taking their land, livestock, and lives!
This is our nation’s history. Europeans conquered native tribes and captured the land. Europeans came to this country seeking religious freedom; and it was two steps forward for freedom and one giant step back for pillaging and plundering native people.
The pilgrim People of Israel, led by Joshua, conquered thirty-one kings. They gained their freedom at the expense of others; and so I beg the question: Which God do we seek to really serve? Two steps forward or one step back.
What can be so challenging for those who consider accepting Jesus today is these stories found in the annals of the Bible portraying God as murderous calling the People of Israel to plunder & pillage.
Yes, Growing with Christ ~ is often two steps forward and one step back for we are challenged to live and love with integrity and equality ~ according to God’s terms and not our own.
And yet the challenge comes when we confuse the terms of a God of Love with our terms or confusing the God of Justice with terminology such as “a just war” and “just discrimination” in the name of God.
Murder by any other name is still murder. Liberation for some, while oppressing others is still evil. Proposition 8 in California; and the other laws of hate passed are acts of hate stimulated by fear and ignorance.
Rev. Dr. King & Bobby Kennedy both sought to overcome fear and ignorance, but were taken out by that same fear and ignorance instead. Jesus, too, was a victim to fear and ignorance. The methods of Joshua were influenced more by fear and ignorance than faith.
And so, I look to the words of the Prophet Isaiah speak to me more about who God is rather than the deeds of Joshua. Hear Isaiah 2:4:
God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
Make no mistake laws of hate are another type of war—denying anyone the right to vote, denying right to privacy, and denying GLBT folks the right to marry and adopt—are acts of domestic warfare.
So what may we learn from Joshua? In his twilight years of reflection, as he gathered the people for one last speech, preparing to pass leadership on to the next generation he makes the statement:
“Fear God! Worship God in total commitment! God is our God! God brought up our ancestors from Egypt and from slave conditions.”
Still fear as the driving force, how about instead, “be in awe of God.” This is the God of Freedom, Joshua; call the people to worship a God of grace, not fear. The people respond: We’d never forsake God! Never! We’d never leave God to worship other gods.
But the moment they killed others for land and livestock they forsook God. Joshua challenges the people’s commitment to their proclamation: You can’t do it; you’re not able to worship God!
The people shout: No! No! We worship God! Do you really worship God? Really trust God? Do believe God will give you enough?
Enough land.
Enough faith.
Enough room.
Enough oil.
Enough hope.
If there is enough, why live in disbelief of God’s lavish providence?
Was it God or humanity who ordained the destruction of other people groups to take, take, and take land, livestock, and lives; and in our history the murdering of Native Americans, and the enslavement of Africans, the Japanese prison camps, Guantanamo Bay; and now the continued discrimination against Gays & Lesbians?
We condone violence and discrimination in the name of God to justify greed and fear doubting that God will provide we take often in the name of God. This is the sin we must constantly defend against—the sin of fear and hate, taking rather than giving, and grasping things that divide us rather than unite us.
We have seen the costs of such disbelief and commitments made in fear to justify horrific deeds in the name of God. We have seen genocide, religious war, slavery-born economies and the scape-goating of others as the “abominations” of the world.
Much of the Book of Joshua is indeed scary and humbling texts for those stories testify more to who we are than to who God is.
They invite us to reexamine the things “our ancestors have told us” much like I see Joshua in his farewell address to the people being called to worship a God they have come to better understand, but still have a ways to go in knowing this God we call Love.
Some Christian theologians have tended to emphasize what they see as the progressive nature of revelation in the Bible. As the Bible progresses, God is seen to reveal God’s Self in ways that are fuller, clearer and more accurate, culminating in the ultimate revelation of God in Jesus Christ.
Joshua and the people didn’t get it, and so God would send the Judges, the Prophets, & the Kings, but it’d take Jesus, God’s Incarnate Self to show them what was always meant to be the only way.
Jesus, in numerous ways through both his teachings and life choices, became our Messiah! Some have called Obama our new messiah.
Obama is no messiah, but rather appears to seek being a faithful follower of the teachings of our Messiah; and though the jury is out if Barak will be able to deliver on promises at least he is preaching a much more inclusive message of hope that is stirring the nation and the world to want to take action.
Prior to this election cycle, I only ever heard taped recording of hope delivered by King and Kennedy. I’d never met a person who could inspire our nation to great hope and promise.
To watch Barak’s acceptance speech on the television this past Tuesday, and to see the crowds spontaneously take to the streets in jubilation across our nation, I was reminded of the images I’d only seen of the March on Washington and Rev. Dr. King standing before the statue of Lincoln declaring, “I have a dream.”
Today, many in our nation and around the globe have hope stirred, but it is mixed for there are two steps forward and one step back.
In the midst of the step backwards in California, Florida, Arkansas and Arizona, we took steps forward by electing a man who forty years ago might have been beaten & possibly murdered if he dared run for a local office. Lest we forget those forty years ago, one out gay minister dared be public in advertising a simple worship service in his home
In the midst of our current challenges, hope is trying to be reborn; and though I call to question Joshua’s perceived biblical mandate to conquer, I do not question his call to worship God in total commitment.
To worship God means believing in the impossible dream while joining with God and the people of God in making the dream a reality for all creation. But…do we really worship God? Really trust God?
Do we really believe there is enough?
Enough land.
Enough faith.
Enough room.
Enough oil.
Enough hope that the money will come to pay our bills
Enough hands to join together in servant ministry
Enough voices to join in praise to God
Growing with Christ ~ as a nation, a church, and as a person may at times feel like a dance steps forward and step back.
What are steps forward within Imago Dei MCC? Providing opportunities for people to deepen their faith in God heal from past hurts, discover the passion God gave them to minister with and to others.
What are steps backward? Drifting away from the mission, ministry, and members of this community, inconsistently supporting the church with time, talent and financial treasures; and let us not forget allowing conflict between people to debilitate the overall mission and ministry of our church.
We have taken some steps forward over the years; and we have stumbled back a few, too. But perhaps it is time for us to claim that the Moses generation helped start this church; and it is, we, the Joshua generation called to take it forward into the Promised Land following the ways of Jesus.
The historic words of King, Kennedy, and Obama all resonate with the words of Jesus who stood on a mountain before his disciples…our steps forward are to be taken together…you are in this together to preach good news, and teach my ways, and care for the least of these.
Now is the time to live the words found in Psalm 78: We’re not keeping this to ourselves, we’re passing it along to the next generation—God’s fame and fortune, the marvelous things God has done.
Now is the time to not give up hope or give in to doubt, no now is the time to dig deep and grow with Christ. Amen.
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